Pdfamicus Brief College Athlete Advocates
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No. 20-255 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States ———— MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Petitioner, v. B.L., A MINOR, BY AND THROUGH HER FATHER LAWRENCE LEVY AND HER MOTHER BETTY LOU LEVY, Respondents. ———— On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ———— BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF COLLEGE ATHLETE ADVOCATES IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS ———— JUSTIN MARCEAU Counsel of Record UNIVERSITY OF DENVER, STURM COLLEGE OF LAW 2255 E. Evans Avenue Denver, CO 80210 (617) 256-9073 [email protected] Counsel for Amicus Curiae March 31, 2021 WILSON-EPES PRINTING CO., INC. – (202) 789-0096 – WASHINGTON, D. C. 20002 QUESTION PRESENTED Can a public school, college or university discipline a student for speech outside of school grounds or events, merely because the speech is about the school and might provoke other students to disagree? (i) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page QUESTION PRESENTED .................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................... iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................ v INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ..................... 1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ............................. 2 ARGUMENT ........................................................ 3 I. THE COURT WILL BE DETERMINING THE RIGHTS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS AS WELL AS K-12 STUDENTS................. 4 II. ATHLETES HAVE OFTEN USED THEIR VOICES IN THE VANGUARD OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL MOVE- MENTS ...................................................... 8 III. ATHLETES NEED ASSURANCE THEY CAN ENGAGE IN SAFETY- MOTIVATED WHISTLEBLOWING WITHOUT FEAR OF RETRIBUTION .... 12 IV. THE RULE SET BY THE COURT WILL AFFECT NOT JUST SOCIAL MEDIA SPEECH, BUT ALL OFF-CAMPUS SPEECH, INCLUDING LAWSUITS AND TESTIMONY ................................... 21 V. BEING DEPRIVED OF PARTICIPA- TION IN SPORTS OR OTHER EXTRA- CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IS A LIFE- CHANGING LOSS, THE RISK OF WHICH WILL INHIBIT SPEECH .......... 24 (iii) iv TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page VI. CONDITIONING ELIGIBILITY FOR SPORTS ON WAIVING FIRST AMEND- MENT RIGHTS WOULD VIOLATE THE “UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONDI- TIONS” DOCTRINE ................................. 27 CONCLUSION .................................................... 31 v TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Page(s) Agency for Int’l Dev. v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l, Inc., 570 U.S. 205 (2013) ................................... 28-29 Alabama Student Party v. Student Government Ass’n, 867 F. 2d 1344 (11th Cir. 1989) ................ 6 Bethel Area Sch. Dist. v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986) ................................... 5 Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified Sch. Dist., 767 F. 3d 764 (9th Cir. 2014) .................... 23 Doe v. Alvey, No. 1:20-CV-410. 2021 WL 1099593 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 23, 2021) .......... 5 Doninger v. Niehoff, 527 F. 3d 41 (2d Cir. 2008) ....................... 21 Eisner v. Stamford Board of Educ., 440 F. 2d 803 (2d Cir. 1971) ..................... 23 Hartzell v. Connell, 679 P.2d 35 (Cal. 1994) (en banc) ............. 27 Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988) ................................... 4-5 Hunt v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of N.M., 792 Fed.Appx. 595 (10th Cir. 2019) ......... 7 Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management Dist., 570 U.S. 595 (2013) ................................... 28 Lee v. Macon County Bd. of Educ., 283 F. Supp. 194 (M.D. Ala. 1968) ........... 27 vi TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Liverman v. City of Petersburg, 844 F. 3d 400, 408 (4th Cir. 2016) ............................ 30 Radwan v. Univ. of Conn., 465 F. Supp. 3d 75 (D. Conn. 2020) ......... 5 Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) ................................... 21 Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963) ................................... 25 State ex rel. Dresser v. Dist. Bd. of Sch. Dist. No. 1, 116 N.W. 232 (Wis. 1908) ......................... 18 Sullivan v. Houston Indep. Sch. Dist., 475 F. 2d 1071 (5th Cir. 1973) .................. 23 Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969) .......................... 4, 21-23, 31 United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968) ................................... 31 OTHER AUTHORITIES Aleza Lardieri, Study: College Students’ Confidence in 1st Amendment Security Decreases, U.S. News & World Rep. (Mar. 12, 2018) .................................................... 7 Anemona Hartocollis, Students Punished for ‘Vulgar’ Social Media Posts Are Fighting Back, N.Y. Times (Feb. 5, 2021) .. 6 vii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Barrett Sallee, Iowa splits with strength coach Chris Doyle after allegations of racial disparity, CBS Sports (Jun. 15, 2020) .......................................................... 14 Brendan Prunty, Mike Rice fired at Rutgers after abusive behavior on practice tapes comes to light, The Star Ledger (Apr. 3, 2013) .......................................................... 14 Brent Schrotenboer, NCAA moves forward with historic reforms for athletes on name, image and likeness, as well as transfers, USA Today (Oct. 14, 2020) ....... 9 Brianna J. Schroeder, Power Imbalances in College Athletics and an Exploited Stand- ard: Is Title IX Dead?, 43 Val. U. L. Rev. 1483 (2009) ................................................ 15 Dana Huninger Benbow, Toxic abuse alleged inside Purdue-Fort Wayne women’s bas- ketball: ‘It was brutal’, Indianapolis Star (Jan. 20, 2021) ........................................... 13 Dana O’Neil, A game that should not be forgotten, ESPN.com (Dec. 13, 2012) ....... 8 Deborah L. Brake, Going Outside Title IX to Keep Coach-Athlete Relationships in Bounds, 22 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 395 (2012) ......................................................... 15 viii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Eva Oberle et al., Screen time and extra- curricular activities as risk and protective factors for mental health in adolescence: A population-level study, Preventive Medicine, Dec. 2020 .................................. 27 Frank D. LoMonte, The Key Word Is Student: Hazelwood Censorship Crashes the Ivy-Covered Gates, 11 First Amend. L. Rev. 305 (2013) .......................................... 5 Frank D. LoMonte & Virginia Hamrick, Running the Full-Court Press: How College Athletic Departments Unlawfully Restrict Athletes’ Rights to Speak to the News Media, 99 Neb. L. Rev. 86 (2020) ... 24 Ilana Kowarski, How Colleges Weigh Applicants’ Extracurricular Activities, U.S. News & World Rep. (Oct. 25, 2018) .......... 26 James Bruggers, ‘This Was Preventable’: Football Heat Deaths and the Rising Temperature, Inside Climate News (July 20, 2018) .................................................... 16 James Dator, A comprehensive timeline of the Larry Nassar case, SBNation (Feb. 26, 2021) .................................................... 13 Kerry Sheridan, The College Football Game That Put A Dent In Desegregation, NPR.org (Nov. 30, 2019) ........................... 8-9 Lindsey Wisniewski, Sedona Prince inspired to lead the change in empowering women in sports, NBC Sports (Mar. 21, 2021) ..... 20 ix TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky & Linda Riedemann Norbut, Considering the Context of Online Threats, 106 Calif. L. Rev. 1885 (2018) .... 12 Marisa Kwiatkowski & Tricia L. Nadolny, Cheerleading has a list of people banned from the sport. It was missing 74 con- victed sex offenders, USA Today (Sept. 18, 2020) .................................................... 14 Meggen Lindsay, Tinker Goes to College: Why High School Free-Speech Standards Should Not Apply to Post-Secondary Students, 38 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 1470 (2012) ......................................................... 4 Nat’l Ctr. for Educ. Stats., The Condition of Education (2012), https://nces.ed.gov/pro grams/coe/analysis/2012-section3.asp. ..... 26 Nicholas A. Palumbo, Protecting Access to Extracurricular Activities: The Need to Recognize a Fundamental Right to a Min- imally Adequate Education, 2004 B.Y.U. Educ. & L.J. 393 (2004) ............................ 26 Philip Bump, How the Missouri football team took down its university’s president, Wash. Post (Nov. 9, 2015) ......................... 10 Rhiannon Walker, High school football players following Kaepernick’s lead, The Undefeated (Sept. 15, 2016) ..................... 10 x TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Rick Maese & Keith L. Alexander, Report on Maryland football culture cites prob- lems but stops short of ‘toxic’ label, The Washington Post, Oct. 25, 2018 ............... 15 Scott Raab, The Wrestler, Esquire (Feb. 23, 2021) .......................................................... 13 Shaun R. Harper, White NCAA Coaches Profit Off Black Players, Hartford Courant (Mar. 14, 2018) .......................................... 11 Stephen Sawchuk, Schools Teach Civics. Do They Model It?, Educ. Week (May 7, 2019) .......................................................... 7 T.F. Charlton, Why do athletes tolerate abusive coaches?, Salon (Apr. 6, 2013) ..... 15 Theresa Vargas, A high school football team told adults they were spat on and called the n-word. Nothing changed until a player posted, ‘enough is enough!’, Wash. Post (Mar. 20, 2021) ...................... 17 1 BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE AND IDENTITY OF AMICI CURIAE1 The collective term “College Athlete Advocates” refers to the following individuals and organizations who are signatories to this brief. They share in common a familiarity with, and concern for, the ability of students participating in competitive sports to make themselves heard – safely, without fear of reprisal – on issues of public concern, including